Page 3461 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 17 August 2011
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“Looking at the program, are we going to finish early or are we going to need the whole time?” I indicated to her that the last motion on the table was a Labor motion and it is the normal form that whoever has the last motion really makes the call, because they are the ones likely to miss out.
I said, “Do you have any comment or do you have any opinion before I speak to Mr Hargreaves?” Essentially, she did not. She indicated that she was supportive, although she was, I would say, reasonably ambivalent about whether or not we sat late. I said, “That’s fine.” I then rang Mr Hargreaves’s office and was unable to get through to him. I spoke to one of his staff members and said, “Look, this is where we’re at; it looks like we won’t need to sit late,” as at that stage we did not, and I indicated to that staff member that he should speak with Mr Hargreaves to find out whether he wanted the Assembly to sit late or not.
Shortly afterwards, Ms Bresnan and Ms Gallagher engaged in a conversation over there and called me over. I came over. I explained that to Ms Gallagher; I explained that I had spoken to that staff member and I was waiting to hear back on whether the Labor Party wanted to sit late or not, at which time she said, “I’ll go away and sort it out.” She then sent me an email about five or 10 minutes later saying, “It’s 7 o’clock,” or “7 o’clock it is.” I then responded, “That’s fine,” or something. “Six-thirty adjournment, 7 o’clock Assembly rise.” I cc’d that to Ms Bresnan and then went away.
The reality is that sometimes these things are a little bit difficult to predict. It looked at that stage, because Mrs Dunne’s motion looked like it was not going to be a long one and Mr Hargreaves was going off, that we were going to get through all the business. That is not the way it eventuated. But I would like to make the point that there was no machiavellian plot or anything else in terms of the way that unfolded. It is just the reality of what occurred. Perhaps some confusion was caused, and it was unfortunate, because Mr Hargreaves had to leave the chamber to go to a medical appointment. That is how it rolled out. I think that any sort of aspersions cast by Ms Bresnan on what occurred are erroneous.
Assembly business
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development, Minister for Territory and Municipal Services and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (7.48): All innocence and light from the opposition on this matter today. Unfortunately, events show otherwise.
I found it extraordinary to hear the Leader of the Opposition stand up in this place and complain that one of their bills did not get debated today. I draw Mr Seselja’s attention to what happened yesterday, a day allocated substantially for the purposes of executive business. The first 2½ hours were consumed by Mr Seselja’s wanton attempt at trashing the reputation of the Speaker in this place. That was for starters in the morning. So that took us to question time.
Yesterday afternoon, was there any bringing on of executive business in terms of bills for debate? There were a number of important bills listed for debate yesterday. Were any of those debated yesterday? No, they were not. Instead, under the incredibly
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